Several computer related products now exist for the design of objects, and which also enable the appearance of the object to be visualized.
Existing 2-dimensional graphic design software includes “Freehand” and “Illustrator” which are drawing packages, “QuarkXpress” and “InDesign” which facilitate page layout and “PaintShop Pro” and “Adobe Photoshop” which are image editors. These products all allow creation of two dimensional images and the modification of those images. They also allow for patterns, shapes, text, colors and graphic objects to be modified and displayed on a flat surface. However in general these packages only model color, and not other surface appearance properties of a printed object such as gloss, haze or relief.
3D modeling packages such as “3D Studio Max” and “Maya” are also known which provide for substantial power in the modeling and visualization of 3 dimensional objects. These products generally require expert users and are typically not aimed at graphic designers and printers.
None of the prior art software treats the creation of a surface finish on a substrate as the superposition of a series of printing, coating, decoration or other surface processing operations (henceforth together referred to as “operations” for brevity) that are routinely applied, or can be applied, in commercial printing or in other surface processing.